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The Fiji Times is a daily newspaper published in Fiji. Established in Levuka on 4 September 1869, it is
Fiji's oldest newspaper still operating.

The Fiji Times is owned by the Fiji Times Limited,
which subsequently is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The Fiji Times
Limited board is chaired by Ross McDonald (as of 1996), and includes Mahendra Motibhai Patel
(appointed 1974). A third position
on the board is held by AdiDavila Toganivalu, a businesswoman
named on 7 January 2006 to replace RatuJoni Madraiwiwi, a former High Court
judge who resigned from the board upon becoming (in 2005) the Vice-President of Fiji. The Company Secretary is Umesh Prasad (since
2004). The former publisher Evan
Hannah was forcibly removed from Fiji in 2008 as he was accused by
the interim government of meddling in Fijian
politics.

An online edition is published, featuring local
news, sport and weather.

Contents

Coups and
censorship

The Rabuka administration censored the Fiji
Times for a while following the first military coup of 14 May 1987. In protest,
the newspaper published an edition with large blank spaces, where
articles censored by the military would have been placed.

The Fiji Times announced on 5 December 2006, in the
wake of the overthrow of the civilian
government by the military, that it was suspending
publication rather than bow to government censorship.[1]
Military officers had visited the premises that evening to prohibit
the publication of any "propaganda" in support of the deposed
government of Prime MinisterLaisenia
Qarase. Their online edition would be continuing publication as
normal, however. Just before midday on 6 December, the military granted
permission for the Times to resume publication without
censorship.[2]

The Times reported on 9
December that two members of the public had been
detained and questioned by the Military over letters they had
written to the Times editor during the week, and were
given a "verbal warning."[3]

Nonetheless, from December 2006 to April 2009, the
Times was able to continuously publish articles critical
of the interim government. The latter voiced its displeasure, but
did not impose censorship. Following the 2009 Fijian
constitutional crisis, however, all Fiji's media were censored,
including the Fiji Times. Censors are present in the
paper's newsrooms. The newspaper's chief editor Netani Rika told Radio New Zealand
International that "his journalists continue to cover every
story in detail as if they were working in a democratic country
without restrictions. And he says they challenge the censors by
putting every possible news item before them."[4] The
website of the Fiji Times has also been censored since
April 2009.

Criticism

The Fiji
Labour Party has been highly and consistently critical of the
Fiji Times, accusing it of political bias. In July 2008,
the Party published a report alleging Fiji Times had
collaborated with others in a deliberate effort to unseat the
1999/2000 Labour-led government[5]